Collections Specialist
Salary

Pay for Collections Specialists in the United States sits in the ballpark of $15.44 per hour. Including potential for bonuses and profit sharing, each hitting highs of $8K, total cash payment to Collections Specialists can bottom out at $26K or peak near $50K. Residence is the biggest factor affecting pay for this group, followed by career length. A strong majority report receiving medical coverage from their employers and the greater part collect dental insurance. Most Collections Specialists like their work and job satisfaction is high. Among survey respondents, women are more common than men; 80 percent of Collections Specialists are female. Respondents to the PayScale salary survey provided the data for this report.

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

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Job Description for Collections Specialist

Typically, a collections specialist is an individual that specializes in the collection of debt owed to their organization. They use a variety of means to contact individuals who have defaulted on debts and/or who have not paid past-due bills. Collections specialists usually work in a call center with other collections specialists, although they may telecommute from a remote location such as a home office.

Usually a collections specialist has some experience working in a lending or banking role. Many collections specialists have at least a bachelor's degree in finance, economics, or a related field, although it is not an industry-wide requirement for a collections specialist to hold a college degree. Often, a collections specialist also has a background working in sales or another field that requires an individual to be comfortable directly engaging with others in high-pressure scenarios.

A collections specialist must have exceptional communication skills, as well as listening abilities. Good attention to detail is another important skill for a collections specialist to possess, as is a proficient understanding of consumer credit reports. A collections specialist usually works under the guidance of a departmental manager who assigns them a caseload of debtors whom they are to attempt to contact in an effort to procure payment. A collections specialist often must be resourceful and creative to locate and successfully contact an individual for whom they do not have current contact information.

Common Career Paths for Collections Specialist

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For Collections Specialists, transitioning into a Collections Manager role — where the average salary $49K per year — is a rare occurrence. A Collections Supervisor role is the most common promotion for Collections Specialists moving up the ladder, and pay for the position tends to be around the $45K mark. Another typical, albeit less common, transition for Collections Specialists is a Bill & Account Collector position, where earnings are usually $31K.

Collections Specialist Job Listings

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Popular Skills for Collections Specialist

This chart shows the most popular skills for this job and what effect each skill has on pay.

Survey results suggest that Collections Specialists put a wide range of professional skills to use. Most notably, skills in Negotiation, Accounts Receivable, Customer Relations, and Microsoft Excel are correlated to pay that is above average, with boosts between 5 percent and 12 percent. Skills that seem to negatively impact pay include Medicaid & Medicare Billing. For most people, competency in Collections indicates knowledge of Accounts Receivable.

Pay by Experience Level for Collections Specialist

Median of all compensation (including tips, bonus, and overtime) by years of experience.

For many Collections Specialists, extensive experience does not lead to significantly more money. Salaries of relatively inexperienced workers fall in the neighborhood of $32K, but folks who have racked up five to 10 years see a notably higher median of $36K. Collections Specialists claiming one to two decades of experience make an estimated median of $39K. Individuals who report more than two decades of experience seem to make only slightly more than folks in the 10-to-20 year range; the more senior group sees median earnings in the comparatively modest ballpark of $41K.

Pay Difference by Location

With a pay rate for Collections Specialists that is 42 percent greater than the national average, San Francisco offers a comfortable salary for those in this profession. Collections Specialists can also look forward to large paychecks in cities like New York (+19 percent), Chicago (+14 percent), Dallas (+12 percent), and Houston (+8 percent). Trailing the national average by 19 percent, San Antonio is the market with the smallest paychecks. Not at the bottom but still paying below the median are employers in Nashville and Indianapolis (17 percent lower and 11 percent lower, respectively).